Huntsville City Schools is responding to a bill saying they owe hundreds of thousands of dollars to Pinnacle Schools. School officials say they never approved the funding and were blindsided by the bill.

Pinnacle Schools is billing Huntsville City Schools $300,000 for services used in April, May, August and September for a program called APP. The school board won't be billed for an extra month because they've ended the APP program.

APP is a transitional program for students who have significant attendance, academic and behavioral needs in all high schools.

The city school board is now investigating. They’ve been in talks with Pinnacle to resolve the issue.

Board members say they knew nothing about the financial ramifications for this program. They describe the resulting situation as complicated and complex. Huntsville school officials say their goal is to not waste taxpayer money.

“I can assure you my team did not delay in attempting to resolve these issues, and they took action as soon as the potential issue was discovered. And we are still discussing that problem to be resolved in order to help our students,” said Interim Superintendent Tom Drake.

The school board says they won't use an outside auditor to investigate. They say they will handle the investigation in-house.